In many cases, that might be a good indication of success for a candidate
to art school, but it that had been the case for my entry to college art,
I wouldn't be an artist/teacher today. I didn't have the luxury of having
a rich highschool/jr.high art education. I didn't enter art school until I
was 27and graduated at 30 yrs.old. I had no portfolio, just a wild idea
and a lot of desire to find my creativity. I just knew something was
missing in my life, and art seemed to be it. I took a wild gamble when I
changed my major to art and signed up for a whole semester of art classes
and nothing else at the age of 27. My family thought I was nuts, all
except my supportive husband who was a writer. Truth be known, I was
jealous of a typewriter and signed up for some art classes to survive
early marriage to a writer. It didn't take me long to discover what art
could do for me. I finally had people teaching me what I had always
wished I could do..and it was so much more fun and rewarding than any
other majors I had pursued up to that point. Well, I'm 51 now. I was
hired to teach in my excellent school 2 weeks before I graduated from
college, at the ripe age of 30. THat was 23 years ago. I had a student
of mine in highschool this year win one of 30 National Gold Key art
awards. THough I was her elementary/middle school teacher, she wrote me
the most amazing letter after she won. She thanked me...wow. I think I
have been the kind of teacher that I am because I remember what it was
like to be bored in the art classes I DID have in Jr.high and HS. I was
not born gifted in art, but I have BECOME gifted in time. I can help
others with that desire to realize the same gratification. It's my turn
to help others light their flame...and it would never have happened had I
been denied entry to Art School at University of Houston simply because I
had no portfolio to show them. In fact, I have received scholarships to
Arrowmont, Penland, and Glassell School of Art since college. I know what
is possible with good teachers and a lot of perserverance.